AB553 establishes free speech, academic freedom, and due process standards at University of Wisconsin System institutions and technical colleges.
The Assembly passed AB553 on November 7, 2023, by a vote of 62 to 36. We have assigned pluses to the ayes because this bill prohibits the state’s taxpayer-funded colleges and universities from restricting the free speech, academic freedom, and due process rights of students, employees, and others. Freedom of speech and due process of law are among the “certain unalienable Rights” that every person is entitled to against government at any level, and what no public institution should deny. Indeed, both the U.S. Constitution and the Wisconsin Constitution exist to secure these rights. For example, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was written to protect “freedom of speech,” but, in conjunction with the Ninth and 10th Amendments, reserves jurisdiction over the matter to the states or to the people. The Wisconsin Constitution’s Declaration of Rights then clarifies that “no laws shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech,” the “right of the people peaceably to assemble … shall never be abridged,” and “no person may be held to answer for a criminal offense without due process of law.”